Oo-rah For Jake

Jake Gyllenhaal might take himself as seriously as any other brooding young actor in Hollywood but he has a sense of humor about his own intensity.

During the course of a 20-minute interview, he apologizes a number of times for being ''actory'' and even offers up a story poking fun at just how far he's willing to take those ''actory'' impulses of his.

''When I was doing The Day After Tomorrow, I was really gung-ho to make the father/son relationship with Dennis Quaid poignant,'' he recalls. ''I remember Dennis kind of sitting me down one day and saying, 'You gotta chill out, Jake. It's an action movie.'''

Gyllenhaal didn't chill out one jot for Jarhead, Sam Mendes' adaptation of Anthony Swofford's book about Operation Desert Storm, opening this Friday.

In the movie, Gyllenhaal plays Swoff, a 20-year-old, Marine enlistee sent to Saudi Arabia to fight the first Gulf War.

Gyllenhaal was so eager to be recruited for the movie, he told filmmaker Sam Mendes (American Beauty) that he'd go to insane lengths to bring the story of Swofford to life.

''I remember telling Sam before we started that I would throw up in the sand for him,'' says the actor with a laugh. ''I left him a message saying, 'I'm gonna do anything I can for you.' ''

Gyllenhaal is a man of his word. During one sequence, the actor lost a tooth after a particularly harrowing scene went awry.

Gyllenhaal is the first to admit that his own exaggerated dedication was the cause of the accident. While he was doing a scene with an actor named Brian Geraghty, he asked Geraghty to hold a riffle more loosely so that when Gyllenhaal pulled it towards him, he could make the movement look more forceful.

''I actually forgot that I asked him to do that because the scene was so long,'' recalls Gyllenhaal, 24. ''When I grabbed the rifle, it just went BAM into my mouth. I looked down and saw my tooth in my hand.''

After years of appearing in small, indie dramas, Gyllenhaal finally has a number of high-profile projects worthy of all that firebrand intensity. And on Dec. 9, Gyllenhaal will pop up again opposite Heath Ledger in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a drama about two Wyoming stockmen who fall in love.

''You don't say no to Ang Lee and you don't say no to Sam Mendes,'' notes Gyllenhaal. ''In fact, you beg both of them to be in their movies no matter whether you're wearing a sand cap over your private parts, or making love to Heath Ledger.''

Gyllenhaal's performances in both Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain are generating early Oscar buzz. The actor insists the positive feedback is simply a benefit of the company he's keeping.

''There's a lot of Oscar talk when you're working with directors like Ang Lee and Sam Mendes because they are, inevitably, two Oscar-winning directors.''

''But from my perspective, all that matters is the process itself. I really feel that both Sam and Ang changed my life, regardless of the end result of these films. That's what I take away with me. Everything else is just, you know, fun stuff.''

Gyllenhaal's performance gained the approval of alter ego Tony Swofford. After watching the actor at work, the author says that Gyllenhaal captured ''the controversial bloodlust and existential angst of the young jarhead going to war.''

One of Gyllenhaal's most notable early roles was playing the disillusioned title character in Donnie Darko (2001), a film which became a huge hit on DVD and has since developed a substantial cult following.

''As far as I'm concerned, Donnie Darko is one of the closest things to my heart, creatively, that I've ever done,'' says the actor. ''It's a movie that reflects a period of time in my life like no other movie I've done.''

Ever since Gyllenhaal began garnering praise for his early roles, he's been called a star of tomorrow. Along with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Kirsten Dunst, he has attracted the attention of the paparazzi.

But Gyllenhaal isn't one to whine about all of the scrutiny. ''I totally understand why would be interested in my personal life. I mean it's fascinating to watch people go get coffee and walk their dog. I love watching everybody on the street do it so why wouldn't love watching me do it.

''I know what this business is about. I know what I was getting myself into. And if I didn't, well, then I shouldn't be doing this in the first place.''

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